Poverty Is Not an Accident

Poverty Is Not an Accident
Nelson Mandela

Thursday, September 08, 2005

Mental "Health" Industry Exploits Disaster for Profits

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From: CCHR [mailto:news@cchr.org]
Sent: Wednesday, September 07, 2005 6:37 PM
To: CCHR Int
Subject: Beware the "Grief Police" Taking Advantage of Katrina Victims



Topic: Beware the "Grief Police" Taking Advantage of Katrina Victims



Mental Health Industry Exploits Disaster for Profits



The mental health industry is descending on the Katrina-ravaged gulf region in massive numbers expecting to reap large government appropriations for psychiatric treatment of hurricane victims and relief workers. Self-interested mental health practitioners and psychiatric front groups, warning of dire mental health consequences for victims, relief workers, and society at large are lining up in droves for their anticipated bonanza.
Sept 4 Atlanta-Constitution Journal article.



Insight Magazine, a Washington Times publication, published an expose' in January 2002 on the mental health industry's blueprint for financial gain following such disasters as the Oklahoma City bombing and September 11. Profitable tactics included mandatory mental health screenings, involuntary commitments and forced drugging - beginning with police, firefighters and volunteers working at the disaster site. Click here to access the full text of the Insight Magazine article,
"The Grief Police", by Kelly Patricia O'Meara.



Psychiatrists are already promoting the use of mind-altering drugs for victims and relief workers, which carry strong warnings of suicidality, hostility and violence from the
US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and its European equivalent, CHMP. September 6 Forbes article.





For interviews with investigative reporter Kelly Patricia O'Meara and other experts, call Ben Williams at 800-869-2247

CCHR.org

Katrina Jobs

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If you are an evacuee who worked in the tourism and travel industries in affected areas, people are looking for you to give you a pay check. In addition, the travel industry is launching a web site, opening September 15, to help you locate employment in your new locations.

Go to Katrina Jobs for further information.

Wednesday, September 07, 2005

Hurricane survivors

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Hurricane Katrina Survivors a blog. If you're missing someone, check here.

Katrina Housing If you have housing to offer, or if you need housing, check here.

Saturday, Sept. 10: No Gas Day

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September 10th, 2005 - purchase NO GAS!
IT HAS BEEN CALCULATED THAT IF EVERYONE IN THE UNITED STATES DID NOT PURCHASE A DROP OF GASOLINE FOR ONE DAY AND ALL AT THE SAME TIME, THE OIL COMPANIES WOULD CHOKE ON THEIR STOCKPILES.

AT THE SAME TIME IT WOULD HIT THE ENTIRE INDUSTRY WITH A NET LOSS OF OVER 4.6 BILLION DOLLARS WHICH AFFECTS THE BOTTOM LINES OF THE OIL COMPANIES.

THEREFORE Sept 10TH HAS BEEN FORMALLY DECLARED "STICK IT TO THEM? DAY" AND THE PEOPLE OF THIS NATION SHOULD NOT BUY A SINGLE DROP OF GASOLINE THAT DAY.

THE ONLY WAY THIS CAN BE DONE IS IF YOU FORWARD THIS E-MAIL TO AS MANY PEOPLE A S YOU CAN AND AS QUICKLY AS YOU CAN TO GET THE WORD OUT.

REMEMBER ONE THING, NOT ONLY IS THE PRICE OF GASOLINE GOING UP BUT AT THE SAME TIME AIRLINES ARE FORCED TO RAISE THEIR PRICES, TRUCKING COMPANIES ARE FORCED TO RAISE THEIR PRICES WHICH EFFECTS PRICES ON EVERYTHING THAT IS SHIPPED. THINGS LIKE FOOD, CLOTHING, BUILDING MATERIALS, MEDICAL SUPPLIES ETC. WHO PAYS IN THE END? WE DO!

WE CAN MAKE A DIFFERENCE. IF THEY DON'T GET THE MESSAGE AFTER ONE DAY, WE WILL DO IT AGAIN AND AGAIN.

SO DO YOUR PART AND SPREAD THE WORD. FORWARD



Remember: September 10th, 2005 - purchase NO GAS!

Laura Bush: Poor benefit from Katrina

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NEW YORK Accompanying her husband, former President George
H.W.Bush, on a tour of hurricane relief centers in
Houston, Barbara Bush said today, referring to the
poor who had lost everything back home and evacuated, "This is working very well for them." . . .

"And so many of the people in the arena here, you know, were underprivileged anyway, so this--this (she chuckles slightly) is working very well for them."



http://www.editorandpublisher.com/eandp/news/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1001054719

Refugees---gramatically wrong??

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Subject: Re: [KUNMIDEAS-L] Refugees---gramatically wrong??
To: KUNMIDEAS-L@LIST.UNM.EDU


I think the people who resent the label, "refugee,"
are reacting to the pity factor in popular culture and
mainstream media.

I think they're afraid they'll be lumped in with
refugees from other countries' natural and political
disasters. I think they resent the notion that they're
not tax-paying Americans.

I also think this need to distance oneself from
so-called "third world" peoples is a reaction to right
wing propaganda, such as talk radio.

People don't want to be associated with the
mythology/urban legend/propaganda archetypes of
welfare cheats, bums, mooches...ad nauseum.

It's a dang shame, in my opinion: with Katrina --as
with 911-- we had another, perfect opportunity for US
citizens to begin to identify with the global
community. We had an opportunity to raise our
consciousness, break out of our privileged
isolationism, and begin to identify with the masses of
most of the Human population.

There are communities of millions of people on this
planet who NEVER have electricity, running water,
secure food supplies or sewage. They live in
deprivation daily, for generations.

We had a chance to learn something about deprivation
in this crisis.

And we had a chance to break those myths and urban
legends wide open and reveal them for the manipulative
lies they really are.

I wondered, when Mayor Chavez bragged that the city
has a thousand apartment units in this city which are
currently vacant: why are so MANY children here
HOMELESS then? Why aren't those units already and
always filled to capacity?

I see homeless families all over this city, all the
time. Why don't we raise money and donations for them?
Because we blame the victim? Because we buy into the
lies of the propaganda spin machines?

Why didn't the panel guests for the Homelessness
Marathon get pate, shrimp and roast beef--as the
donors did recently?

So, "refugee" is a not US distinction? Ah. not us

Sounds like internalized class-ism, to me. Just my opinion.

Rogi Riverstone

http://rriverstone.com

Subject: Re: [KUNMIDEAS-L] Subject: Re: [KUNMIDEAS-L] Refugees---gramatically wrong??
To: KUNMIDEAS-L@LIST.UNM.EDU


Vince said, "Just like we can't feed and clothe (and
house) our own downtrodden, but
if we get Katrina Evacuees (and the national media) we
can move the
damn Sandias!"

You've explained a great mystery to me, Vince. For
years, I wondered why the "Peace and Justice" Center
was located in cushy Snob Hill and not in the "War
Zone," where it's desperately needed.

Easier to feel sorry for Guatemalan kids, five
thousand of miles away, rather than risk tuberculosis,
from Guatamalan kids, five miles away.... sigh.
Mustn't dirty the hand that feeds...

Rogi Riverstone

http://rriverstone.com

NM Town Hall on Katrina

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Subject: Re: [KUNMIDEAS-L] NM Town hall on Katrina?
To: KUNMIDEAS-L@LIST.UNM.EDU


May I suggest this town hall provide specific,
practical information and discussion about what we can
do, right here, to circumvent the experiences of New
Orleans?

I was just thinking, this morning: I need to build a
solar generator for electricity; I need to get some
iodine and some charcoal for water filtering and
purification; I need to expand my rotating stock of
preserved foods; I need to think about battery-powered
light, radio and other appliances, etc.

Can our city immediately activate city and APS busses,
to evacuate EVERYBODY? Can we store and rotate
emergency water, food, medical and sanitary supplies
in city facilities, such as the Pit and the Convention
center? Can we supply city facilities with solar or
wind generators, so our buildings are self-powering?
Can we educate our population on how to leave? If we
can't evacuate, can our population be educated on how
to survive here?

Can we supply medicines, such as insulin, to those who
need them?

How can the citizens of Albq. prepare ourselves for
disaster? How do we avoid the violence we see in the
Delta? How will we provide for the rural communities,
who will be cut off far longer than urban areas? What
alternative forms of communication, such as ham radio,
can we utilize to stay in contact with the outside
world (I'm also seriously considering building a ham
radio, myself).

If we DON'T depend on government (which seems to be
helpless in the face of real catastrophe), how do we
provide for ourselves, so we will be survivors, rather
than victims?

I suggest that, if we put the needs of our children
first, we'll have the resources necessary to take care
of ALL of us! What's good for the kids is good for the community.

Rogi Riverstone

http://rriverstone.com

"War Zone?"

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Subject: [KUNMIDEAS-L] "War Zone?"
To: KUNMIDEAS-L@LIST.UNM.EDU


When I first moved to the La Mesa neighborhood, I,
too, resisted the label of "War Zone" to describe my
community.

I soon realized that it was the property owners, north
of Copper Street, for whom this term is the most
problematic. They're VERY worried about their property
values, understandably.

But it is THEY, and the APD, who have declared war on
those of us, south of Copper, who rent.

We can't function, as a result. We're constantly under
the most miniscule scrutiny. Yeah, we're poor. We work
on our own cars, and sometimes, those are on concrete
blocks in our yards. Selective enforcement sees to it
that it is only OUR cars that are cited as
nonoperating vehicles.

Selective enforcement of ordinances, laws and
legislation torments us. Things that are considered
"Quaint," things tourists snap photos of in other
neighborhoods in Albuquerque, are considered
indications of insanity and slovenliness in the War
Zone. I specifically am thinking of the Aztec Hotel,
covered in wine bottles, stuffed animals and plastic
flowers. If you "decorate" like that in the War Zone,
the city will use the "nuisance" abatement ordinances
to get you EVICTED and get your property condemned!

I have called the police, only to have them stand in
my yard, screaming and cursing at ME! If you live in
the War Zone, you MUST be up to something, or must be
crazy.

I was stalked by a mental patient. He was robbing me.
He beat me. He tried to rape me. The police did
NOTHING. In fact, they used the fact that I'd called
the police so many times as an excuse to get ME
evicted by the "nuisance" abatement ordinances!! If
there are too many calls to the police about a
specific address, they can enforce that law!

NOBODY would help me. I was instantly homeless, and my
neighbors broke in and robbed me blind.

Apparantly, stalking laws only apply to middle class,
heterosexual women.

Now, I suspect my stalker was this guy, Hide (Hyde?),
who just killed five people, including two cops!

The neighborhood association, which, poetically, calls
itself the La Mesa CIA (community improvement
association) played a MAJOR ROLE in getting me thrown
out of the neighborhood.

I had marched with them in antidrug rallies. I had
attended their meetings. For years, every child in the
War Zone was welcomed in my home for sanctuary,
instruction, food, clothing, etc.

But the CIA blamed ME for criminal activity of these
kids, when they were NOT at my home. I, of course,
said, "Those kids are at my home from 3pm-9pm (just
before cerfew), weekdays. They're at my house for up
to ten hours a day on weekends. Imagine, then, how
MUCH trouble they could be causing, during those
hours, were they not with ME! And what are YOU doing
to improve their lives, save them from incest, educate
them? Have you ever given any of them one pencil for
homework??"


As a result, I was made homeless, treated as a
criminal, and banished from the neighborhood.

It all happened in FRONT of the kids. So, they got the
clear message, "If you TRY to improve conditions in
this slum, THIS is what we'll do to you!"

I had sent copies of my emails about the stalking to:
APD Chief, AFD Chief, Mayor, Abq. Tribune and the
Governor's office. An animal control officer, present
the day of my eviction, HEARD a fire marshall say,
"the mayor wants this house bulldozed to the ground,
and that bitch locked up."

People are DYING of neglect, prejudice and selective
enforcement in that community. There's no rehab.
There's on social outreach. There's no job training.
There are NO JOBS!!! And our CARS get towed, in
selective sting operations -- ostensibly looking for
no seat belts, broken lights, cracked windshields --
when we're pulled over for unannounce road blocks that
fill city coffers and leave us without transportation
to our DISHWASHING jobs in the far, North East
Heights.

SLUMLORDS, in the University area? PLEASE!! WE have to
stockpile water, because our landlords leave for
vacation without paying water bills! Our CEILINGS
collapse in the monsoons! Our electricity and gas go
out more than WE do! It's not safe to walk two blocks
to the grocery, for all the punks vending crack
outside the Philadelphia Ministries "Half Way" house,
which is really just a SCAM for the so-called
"Minister," who holds the residents hostage as forced
labor for his CONTRACTING business!!

We walk through human feces, daily. Our kids have
asthma. We have rats. You can't drink a beverage at
night, without leaving a light on, because the ROACHES
will climb into your glass AS YOU DRINK IT!

NOBODY cares about us. We are FORCED to be criminals,
in order to just survive.

La Mesa means "The Table," yet there's no room at the
table for US!

WE didn't declare war; THEY did.

Rogi Riverstone

http://rriverstone.com

Friday, September 02, 2005

"Vote" Image

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For reasons I can't explain, people have been visiting the composite image I made called, "vote." It's an online jpeg, taken from a real newspaper photo. No, I didn't remember to cite my source, dang it. I also added the caption, "Vote," in red. I created it for the 2004 elections in the USA.

Here's the image, since Google images search seems to have issues: http://rriverstone.com/images/vote.jpg

Hurricane Housing

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Dear MoveOn member,

Hurricane Katrina's toll on communities, homes and lives has devastate= d the nation. Now victims must face the daunting question of where to go next—and= we can help.

Tens of thousands of newly homeless families are being bused to a stadium in Houston, where they may wait for weeks or months. At least 80,= 000 are competing for area shelters, and countless more are in motels, cars, or w= herever they can stay out of the elements. The Federal Emergency Management Agenc= y and the Red Cross are scrambling to find shelter for the displaced.

This morning, we've launched an emergency national housing drive to= connect your empty beds with hurricane victims who desperately need a place to wait ou= t the storm. You can post your offer of housing (a spare room, extra bed, even a decen= t couch) and search for available housing online at:

http://www.hurricanehousing.org

Housing is most urgently needed within reasonable driving distance (ab= out 300 miles) of the affected areas in the Southeast, especially New Orleans.

Please forward this message to anyo= ne you know in the region who might be able to help.

But no matter where you live, your housing could still make a world of= difference to a person or family in need, so please offer what you can.

The process is simple:


You can sign up to become a host by = posting a description of whatever housing you have available, along with contact information. Y= ou can change or remove your offer at any time.


Hurricane victims, local and nationa= l relief organizations, friends and relatives can search the site for housing. We'll do everythin= g we can to get your offers where they are needed most. Many shelters actually al= ready have Internet access,=20 but folks without 'net access can still make use of the site through case= workers and family members.


Hurricane victims or relief agencies= will contact hosts and together decide if it's a good match and make the necessary tra= vel arrangements. The host's address is not released until a particular match is agreed on.=

If hosting doesn't work for you, please consider donating to the Red C= ross to help with the enormous tasks of rescue and recovery. You can give online = at:

http://www.moveon.org/r?r=3D= 859

As progressives, we share a core belief that we are all in this togeth= er, and today is an important chance to put that idea to work. There are thousand= s of families who have just lost everything and need a place to stay dry. Let's do what= we can to help.

http://www.hurricanehousing.org

Thanks for being there when it matters most.

—Noah Winer and the whole MoveOn.org Civic Action Team
Thursday, September 1st, 2005

the view from Air Force One

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From History News Network.

Save the Big Easy!

Thursday, September 01, 2005

Katrina

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Dear Rogi,

Thank you for your generous gift to the American Red Cross 2005 Hurricane Relief Fund. This fund makes it possible for the Red Cross to help nationwide Hurricane disaster victims of 2005 with critical needs such as shelter, food, clothing, counseling and other assistance. It's because of the 2005 Hurricane Relief Fund that our response can be immediate regardless of its location or the community’s ability to financially support our efforts.

Your generous support means the most to the families who rely on Red Cross to help them through some of the most difficult times of their lives.

Please continue to visit us at http://www.redcross.org/ to see how we’re using your 2005 Hurricane Relief Fund donation to make a difference, and for the most current disaster updates and stories about the people being helped.

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